PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The University of Central Florida, which clinched a share of the first American Athletic Conference football championship last Friday, has clinched the conference’s automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series following Louisville’s 31-24 win against Cincinnati Thursday night.
UCF takes a 7-0 American Athletic Conference record into its regular-season finale at SMU Saturday. With Thursday’s win, Louisville finished its regular season at 7-1 in The American. UCF would earn the outright conference title with a win against the Mustangs. If SMU wins Saturday’s game, forging a tie atop the standings between UCF and Louisville, the Knights would still earn the BCS bid based on their head-to-head win against the Cardinals. UCF was a 38-35 winner at Louisville Oct. 18.
UCF’s only loss of the season is a 28-25 setback to a South Carolina squad that is ranked No. 8 in this week’s BCS standings. The Knights take a seven-game winning streak into Saturday’s game against SMU and have won at least 10 games for the fourth time in five seasons.
UCF will learn its bowl destination Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN on the VIZIO BCS Selection Show. It will be the first BCS appearance for UCF. The Knights, who had been ranked in the BCS standings just once prior to this season (No. 25 on Dec. 5, 2010), have been ranked in each of this year’s BCS standings and are No. 16 in the most recent ranking.
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